celestesbookshelf's reviews
260 reviews

Listened to The Golden Couple on
my road trip to Dallas! I had to speed it up because I
couldn't wait to figure out what happened!
Full of twists and unexpected turns this domestic
thriller won't disappoint. My first read by these ladies
and I like this cover aesthetic more than their prior one!

🔅Thank you to @amazonbooks for the Amazon First Reads edition of this e-ARC! 

🔅Publication date: April 1st, 2022

🔅If you’re privy to the recent criticism of media’s attention/lack of attention on missing girls and women of certain race and ethnic groups then this book is for you!

Authors create a very realistic story of the struggles of finding any information missing black women - since they have been labeled runaways, “troubled”, “junkies” and have gotten what was coming to them. 

This is of course a fictional narrative but the parallels with current events is apparent and important. The nationwide shoulder-shrug that happens when a black woman goes missing inspired @ourblackgirls, an organization highlighting the tens of thousands of missing black girls and women who’ve never had their story told. 

🔅@npr did an article on them on September 24th, 2021 titled “Tens Of Thousands Of Black Women Vanish Each Year. This Website Tells Their Stories.” Check them out and read @dredamitchell and Ryan Carter’s new novel, Say Her Name. 

This book took me slightly over 2 months to read! I had to push myself through the last third of it - because I really didn’t want to DNF it. 

What initially attracted me to this book was its connection to Ciudad Juarez in Chihuahua, México. It’s south of El Paso on the Rio Grande and is widely recognized as one of the most violent cities for involvement in drug trafficking and murder of young women. I read it in the original Spanish, my first language yet at the present I read more English than Spanish and this also slowed me down.

The novel is divided into five parts and starting out it was hard to see how Juarez was involved - slowly we get to Mexico and the main characters we’ve begun the novel with fade and we are introduced to a new set of characters in part II. This is one of the things I disliked - I grew attached to the characters at the beginning and wanted to see how their lives unfolded.

The next two parts we meet new characters until we get to the “The Part about the Crimes”, part IV. Here I thought I would pick up pace as I had arrived at what brought me to the novel. It ended up being the opposite as the crimes’ description were gruesome and I dragged my feet for weeks through this part. Maybe it hit too close to home as I am only a few hours away from Juarez, maybe I’m too sensitive to descriptions of rape, murder and abuse against young women. I don’t know 🤷🏻‍♀️ but it took me weeks to get through a few hundred pages. 

Part V everything comes together and this was my favorite as some of the previous main characters show up again. Part V was easier to get through as the pace picks up and pieces fall together. Bolaño’s ability to bring back details to the present and show the reader his plot all along was impressive. 

I would not read this again as it is a very long novel, there’s many parts that are difficult to read and many vulgar depictions of women that were just annoying to have to read over and over again. 

However, I am glad I stuck it through to the end and can cross it off from my 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die List. 

This has been my favorite Christie so far.

To me this one had it all. The mystery, humor, and even romance! Christie was a master and the original “unreliable narrator”! She could’ve easily written romance mysteries because our heroine and her love interest were lovely to read about.

The book is written in Anne Beddingfield and Sir Eustace Pedler POV’s. Sir Eustace was hilarious,
I think I haven’t had a character that makes me laugh so. Christie knows precisely how to bring these characters to life and describe each of their idiosyncrasies. Her knack for writing each character with a thorough understanding of human nature is unparalleled. 

From the introduction we learn that when Tolstoy found out that The Contemporary had published Childhood as The Story of My Childhood wrote to Nekrasev that it contradicted his work because as Tolstoy put it “who cares about my childhood?” I love him for saying that as many people feel they are of great importance and don’t have the self awareness to realize that their own personal history may not be as fascinating to others.

“Childhood” is considered the groundwork for Tolstoy’s later literary masterpieces, as said by 

Rosengrant, [introduction pg. xxx]

“…the work in which he took those first steps, the one in which he laid the groundwork for the great edifice that would follow, was, of course, the trilogy. The trilogy allows us to see Tolstoy’s preoccupations as an artist and thinker in their initial form; it shows us, as perhaps no other work of his can, how those preoccupations developed, how his ideas about human nature and the world first engaged the world and then were changed and modified by his growing experience of it - …”

In “Childhood” we are introduced to Karl Ivanych, the children’s tutor who is dismissed when the kids will move to Moscow. Karl is so distraught since he has invested his whole life in the children’s tutelage that he tells their Papa that he’d rather continue serving free of pay than to leave the children. My heart bled but Papa allowed him to go with them to Moscow. 

The hierarchy of social classes is apparent throughout all of “Childhood”, we have the faithful Natalya Savishna being denied marriage and accused of ungratefulness for being in love. We have Nikolenka shaming Natalya when she reprimands him for soiling tablecloths, he acts highly offended and reminds her that he is the little master. 

Penguin classics copy has very useful footnotes, information that readers of Tolstoy’s time would’ve possessed so jrs been immensely helpful to understand why the characters do what they do. For example, when Nikolenka, his father, and his siblings are preparing for their journey it is mentioned several times that the serfs kissed Papa on the shoulder. Footnotes state this was a custom of the times to exhibit respect and acknowledge their dependent status. Further insight into how aware Tolstoy was of the different castes, being of nobility himself. Not to mention the backstory Natalya is given and Nikolenka’s reception of her. How he never questioned her love and never imagined it otherwise yet Natalya Savishna gave her entire life to the family and the kids simply expected it. What I know of Tolstoy’s childhood I wonder if he was reminiscing on his own family serfs and became aware he never appreciated their love and devotion.

Tolstoy described this trilogy as an “awkward of fiction and facts”, Nikolenka describes his features as plain and more than once says he is not an attractive boy and that even his mother tells him so. It pains me to wonder if this part is fact and Tolstoy’s mother told him he was unattractive. He wrote this in his early twenties and his ability to showcase human emotions even that if a young boy, is just the beginning of his talent.

When Nikolenka is reflecting on how he genuinely feels about his mothers death I noticed Tolstoy described his shame about being curious about other things and not being engrossed in his grief. I think this confusion in children surrounding death is familiar and made the chapter feel very true to Nikolenka’s childhood. 

Natalya Savishna is described as feeling the most grief over Maman’s death, Tolstoy says of her “grief affected her so powerfully that she found it unnecessary to hide her ability to deal with other things. She wouldn’t even have understood where such an idea could have come from.“ Later at her death Tolstoy writes “ she accomplished the best and greatest thing in this life: she died without regret or fear.“ I just love these quotations, their insightfulness into human emotion is captivating.

When Grandmother is experiencing grief Tolstoy writes that “only those capable of strong love can experience strong grief, but the very need to love serves as a counterweight to their grief and heals them.” Another magnificent quote on human emotion.

Tolstoy continues to describe intricate feelings and stages of growing up. Nikolenka in this phase begins to be self-aware of his family’s privilege and wealth and that not everyone else has the same opportunities. He describes idiosyncrasies of characters that you feel like you know them, or at least a person just like them. Of Katenka “it was her habit to explain everything as a necessity of fate whenever she didn’t know what to say.” 

Another prominent theme in Tolstoy’s work is the hierarchy of social classes and the harsh lives the people in lower positions have to endure. Karl Ivanych especially, his life he’s been made to feel he doesn’t belong, now after years of faithful service he’s been disposed of. 

Sibling relationships between Nikolenka and Volodya, Nikolenka and his sister Lyuboshka are analyzed to perfection. I know exactly what the characters are feeling. 

Between Volodya and Nikolenka, Nikolenka constantly feels that Volodya is ashamed of him. Ashamed of his childishness, of everything he says and does. Meanwhile, when the kids are playing a game Nikolenka is time after time the one left out. His sister Lyubochka makes sure to pick him and Nikolenka knows it. This looking out for each other without having to verbalize it is characteristic of siblings.

Volodya’s friend, Nekhlyudov is described as witty and charismatic. Nikolenka hates him for this. Or really he hates that he always goes mute around him and fantasizes about proving that he too is just as clever as Nekhlyudov. 

Overall, this awkward phase of boyhood is expertly described. I can remember my own awkward stage and know those toxic thoughts of self-consciousness. 

When Tolstoy sent Youth for editing to Alexander Druzhinin for editing where Druzhinin said of Tolstoy’s writing “every one of your defects has its part of strength and beauty, and nearly every one of your merits contains within it a kernel of your defects” 

Youth was the best part of this three-part book. Nikolenka is in the middle of the awkward teenage years, his self-awareness and insecurity are cringeworthy. 

Yet Tolstoy has such a way of human nuances and our selfish thought process when doing good. For example: 

Nikolenka of suppressing his anger “…my mood made even milder by the thought that in suppressing my vexation and helping him I was doing good.”

Nikolenka in Youth spends much time daydreaming about “walking into a room, everyone fighting for his attention and everyone being grateful to him for one thing or another.” 

His desire to be noticed, important and revered are common themes throughout the last section yet Nikolenka describes his older brother cringing each time he spoke around his friends. I wondered if it what Nikolenka thought he saw his brother do was accurate or if it was his insecurity that had him believing his brother felt ashamed of him. 

Nikolenka develops a strong friendship with Dmitry and his family. He spends most of his time visiting with them and states he “feels that everyone speaks to him with respect and seriously”. He mentioned various times that he feels ugly and now where he’s being noticed he experiences feelings of imposter syndrome; it can’t possibly be him with whom the family is conversing.

Further cringeworthy coming-of-age phases he describes are his propensity to “utter ridiculous lies which are obviously false” in his youth and he never quite understood why and how on various occasions says what he believes will make him appear interesting even if he does the thing he just claimed to despise!  Characteristic of youth, that insecurity of wanting to be someone you’re not. Later Tolstoy writes after Nikolenka announces his negative comment “I said, wishing to show that I had my own opinion about everything”. Tolstoy’s description of human nature floors me, especially because he described the trilogy as an “awkward compilation of fact and fiction” so at least some of this insecurity and desire to be noticed have to be what Tolstoy experienced growing up. Youth ends with an allusion to part 4 which Tolstoy never wrote: intended to be titled Youth: Manhood.

I had never heard of this Tolstoy until my group of bookish friends began a buddy read for it. I jumped in and am so glad I did because like the translator, Judson Rosengrant, mentions in the introduction, this is the stepping stone for Tolstoy’s literary masterpieces.

Bookstagram made me do it!
❓ Last Bookstagram inspired book read?
⚠️ domestic abuse
🔅Read by Olivia Song
🔅Second book I read on the road trip to Big Bend! 

I love CoHo and this was no exception.
I read some reviews stating they felt emotionally manipulated to like the aggressor.
Most women stuck in domestic violence situations fell for aggression because he was charming and nice so this representation was executed well to have the reader feel the conflict of why she stayed. 
I especially liked the book beginning with them meeting and not in the middle of their abusive marriage because it better depicted why it was hard for her to walk away.

The Maid, Nita Prose | Read
by Lauren Ambrose
Had an 8-hr drive to Big Bend National Park so
downloaded two audiobooks!
"The Maid" is a mystery thriller with Molly the
Maid (lol) as our heroine. She is neurodivergent
and relied on her "Gran" to help her make sense
of the world around her and read peoples cues.
She is an exemplary employee at the Grand
Regency Hotel, her kindness leads people to take
advantage of her. Her willingness to help those
around her makes her an easy target for people
willing to exploit her kindness and goodwill.
I felt frustrated with Molly various times. She was
so sharp for some situations and other situations
the nefarious undertones go completely over her
head. Molly deserved so much better from her
boss, her friend and certainly from the guy she
has feelings for. The twist at the end really got me
and I especially enjoyed how she turned the
tables on Rodney.

🔖 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list
⚠️ Suicide, Inhumane Medical Treatment
🔅I learned that Coelho was himself institutionalized for a period of time, in and out and that this novel is partly based on his experience in these sanatoriums. 

If you’ve seen Behind Her Eyes on Netflix you may enjoy this as it also has themes of astral projection and travel. Or The Twilight Zone, in the episode Eye of the Beholder where a woman covers her face in bandages to not hide her disfigurement. She undergoes one more plastic surgery attempt and it fails, when the camera shows the surgeon and nurses they’re the ones who are disfigured and the woman is “normal”
according to our society. 
Coelho touches on these themes of “what is normal?” as well as inhumane medical treatment being given fancy names as a euphemism. The plot advances with Dr. Igor, the sanatoriums psychiatrist, running am experiment on Veronika without her or anyone else’s knowledge. Will he be able to convince her to value her life without any treatment at all?

🔅It was more mature than I expected it to be. We are introduced to best friends Fiona & Jane, young girl who are being raised by their moms only, albeit for different reasons. 

The anthology skips timelines and we see how their goals, dreams, expectations don’t turn out the way they expected or hoped. And that’s okay. The novel spans from their childhood to early 40s. Many current issues come up such as sexual identity, cultural bias, changing Asian names to an easier American name, suicide, PTSD, toxic family and the obligation to remain loyal to them anyway. 

Recently there’s been news stories of Asians stating how they’ve been asked to adapt an American name and the mental toll its taken on their identity. This novel is good for young adults as mature themes of sex, drugs and alcohol are shown. I wish the book had included years for each chapter so I could better grasp how long had passed between each of our characters’ lives. What I enjoyed most was the author showing their struggles, their deviation from their originally planned path but their arrival to a place where they’re happy even if it wasn’t where they thought they’d be. 

A Court of Thorns & Roses 🌹 

Not much I can say that hasn’t been said already so I’ll stick to bullet points.

🔅What I liked:

🔅Didn’t like: